The Yoshi vs Marth match can be either extremely frustrating, or full of pleasant scenarios. It sort of boils down to the marths current play style, and how your yoshi can do against it to throw marth off balance.
First off, I can’t really recommend a specific stage. Platforms help yoshi’s mobility immensely but I find that some marths can zone really well under one of the low platforms. FD, on the other hand, having no platforms means that vertical “juggling” and platform Tech chases are eliminated, which sort of hinders both characters. Stages aside all yoshis need to know that to win/do well in this matchup requires masterful/ unorthodox spacing (Learn the range of Marths aerials, smashes, and grabs.) Before bursting marth’s defensive bubble, one needs to know where to draw a line in being a safe/yet intimidating distance.
Approaching (in general):
Since marth has no projectile, and yoshi’s egg can be rather risky to use, both characters will most likely “approach” by either bombarding their opponent with spaced aerials/tilts and grabs OR by moving around/dash dancing and generally trying to force a reaction.
Attacks and shields:
Yoshi can use his DJ armor in many cases to throw marth’s spacing off and attack him through his own “wall” of attacks. BEWARE: DJCC through marth’s attacks can get predictable, and when this happens you may lose your DJ and become easy combo food for marth.
Watch marth for patterns. This is important as yoshis need to try hard to get momentum. see a shield up too often? Grab or egg lay before marth can abuse his own grab. Yoshi’s Dthrow will put marth above you (it may lead a uair, although I believe this is Damage and DI dependent) Anyways, with marth above you, make haste to hassle him with relentless Uairs, Nairs, eggs, or maybe go for another shield grab as he lands. Egglay can also make a marths wary of shielding too much, especially if you catch them while you are airborne.
Another good tactic against shield happy marths is to look for shield pokes. Marth’s head and feet can easily be clipped, especially if the opponent does no tilt their shield. Fast DJC Nair’s and jab/tile mixups can also provide adequate shield pressure. Sometimes, a completely agro Yoshi will overwhelm Marth. This can lead to a shield poke bonanza.
As mentioned before, Yoshi can DJCC marth’s attacks spacing (some to quite high percentages) and begin a rain of DJC uairs/nairs. I recommend Yoshi’s become somewhat proficient in spotting ideal situations and being able to execute quick DJCC to minimize risk and maximize destruction. Being able to DJCC well will force marths to rethink their Entire spacing strategy, while this may be bad in for us in the future, it will benefit us now.
Common marth “approaches” that you will most likely encounter are SH Fairs and SH nairs.
*Be precise in DJCC the Nair, sometimes, when trying to attack in between the first and second attack, you may begin an aerial but get hit out of it, LOSING your DJ.
It is not always necessary to take damage. Use Yoshi’s mobility and Platforms (if accessible) to “Zone” and bait approaches. Full on approaches (fairs or nairs) by marths can be stopped cold/ or traded with an up-angled ftilt, up smash, Utilt (maybe).
Parrying:
To emphasize “Watch marth for patterns.” Predictability can hinder marth greatly, especially if one can spot it and take action. I find that parry>DJC nair/uair can be useful in this match up. First of all, If you can manage to consistently parry attacks, more power to yah. But what I feel can be important is the Parry>DJC as a whole. While Parrying has a very small frame window, it can be quickly followed up with a DJ. This can give yoshi a second chance to screw with opponents attacks, since if on missed a parry and the opponent reacts with an attacks, Yoshi can continue to lay down aggression with a quick DJCC after said missed parry. I’m not certain of the frame window from when yoshi starts his grounded jump to when he can DJ. <(these frames being your vulnerable ones if a parry doesn’t “parry” an attack)
More thought on this ^?
*tasty hint: Lightshield can get you out of sticky situations.
Edge Guarding/killing and Recovering: **For recovering, knowledge of Yoshi’s DJ and how it reacts to other characters moves is important. KNOW YOUR CHARACTER**
Getting marth off the stage is nice but egdeguarding him is highly important.
Marth recovering High/mid can be difficult to stop, but don’t let his sword bring you down.
Tactics to hit him away may include Nair, Bair, eggs, or smashes.
To deter you marth can use fair/bair/nair to hit yoshi away, or double jump over you and use Dair until he lands again. DJCC nair his aerial attacks to hit him offstage again, or Uair if he is in kill percentage. Eggs work well to rack up damage, but (depending on DI and where they hit) eggs may not hit marth away but instead send him in the vertical direction. (These can be used, Bairs also work well, to set up a vertical kill.)
^needs more work*
Watch for Marths recovering low/for the edge and take action to deny stage and ledge. Before marth gets close to ledge, try bombarding with eggs and maybe weak nair/dairs to perhaps get damage or a gimp.
Once marth gets near the stage, try and react appropriately. Yoshi’s quick edge grab (Run off fall and RDJ) can “Ninja” the edge from sweetspot recovering Marths. If this tactic is spotted and a marth UpBs onto the stage, take advantage of his lag time. One should be able to Waveland on from the ledge, past marth and Dsmash/Fshash them back off the stage. (Uair/up smash may be used to killl vertically at high percentages) In cases where marth Double jumps after seeing you grab ledge, make use of ledge inv. Frames and Nair him back. DJ armor frames can also be helpful when a marth fairs/Neutral Bs.
ECEs can be useful when marth is recovering. If an egg hits him, you can make use of the hit stun and Nair/uair away for a kill. Be Careful though: ECEs can be spotted and stopped by a fair or UpB, possibly gimping you.
Dtilts and Dsmashes can be devastating on marth as they gimp him HARD.
Yoshi’s shouldn’t have too hard a time recovering. When recovering marths tend to usually just aerial you in the air. Making sure you don’t have too much damage, the attack shouldn’t stop your DJ. Marths do catch on though, and will wait until Yoshi’s DJ is over to begin edge guarding/gimping you. (Platform stages help Yoshi recover High with more safety for the distance to land on a platform and regain DJ is closer than say…FD) As a mixup, Try stopping your high recovery with a DownB to the ledge, or perhaps an High/late ECE. Grabbing ledge can be a difficult dangerous task if Marth is waiting for you there already. Doing a DJC to ECE from a distance can be risky, but works a mixup if marth expects a high recovery. If recovering low, react to what marth does. If he edgehogs , watch for Bairs or Dairs, as the are the attacks you will most likely eat trying to get back on stage. Watch your damage and act appropriately to how Yoshi’s DJ will react to an attack.
DI up so You are not limited to a low recovery <(half obvious)
Killing marth can be tricky since finding “Openings” in a marths defense can be difficult. I say Openings with quotations because Yoshi finds them in a different manner.
Uair and Usmash can be used to kill marth vertically quite well, and since he dies off the top at somewhat lowhigh percentages. Usmash has nice range and speed and can be used to hit marth in between his Wall of aerials. Uair’s can be tricky to land sometimes. Try getting marth above you, perhaps with Dthrow or egg lay, and force a Uair (even if it means a DJCC uair).
Bair and eggs are perfect set ups for Uair kills. Bairing a shielding marth Shield pokes quite easily and may leave him vulnerable to a tasty uair. Using Eggs can be tricky, as they can be broken easily with an aerial, and in other cases, power shielded. Improvisations with eggs are the way to go.
They can perform shield pokes. And sometimes bounce on opponents shield and apply shield pressure.
Strong nairs also work well in killing marth, along with well space Fsmash. Although risky, the pullback of Yoshi’s Fsmash can be used to quickly avoid marths attacks (lets say His Fsmash) and hit him right after.
Marths Grabs:
Grabs are a key component to Marths game. You will most likely be grabbed by him multiple times. It is important to DI and react properly to throws to minimize damage.
Dthrow and Bthrow need to be DI’d away to avoid a quick tip at certain damages. Marth’s throw force you to play a game of getting Tech chased if you DI away or chian grabbed if you DI to avoid Teching. Also, Be careful with DI’ing in as marth can Utilt at this moment and Either 1(juggle you with more u tilts/uairs or 2 break your double jump at mid percenages and combo you anyways.
^(I need more input on this area)
Whats also important is NOT getting grabbed. Avoid attacking marths shield head on with anything except maybe spaced fairs. Shield pressure and crossovers work nicely to wear down marths shield and keep him on his toes about shielding. Grabbing and egg lays as mixups are suggested to prevent shield grabs. A dash dancing marth is a good indicator that a grab is wanted. Nonetheless, always keep mobility up by dash dancing yourself, and wave dashing/platform usage. Don’t be tempted to attack his dash dance, as this is what marth wants and will most likely end up in Yoshi getting grabbed or eating swords for dinner.
I suppose, when you’re feeling courageous , one can challenge the dash dance by either running directly towards it and play a game of chicken with marth.
In conclusion, Yoshis…. Know your DJ and how it reacts to attacks, improvise with mobility, DJC, Parry, Eggs and platforms, Avoid doing headlong approaches as they will most likely lead to getting grabbed, Along with keeping marth above you to rack up damage, Do not stay above marth, especially on FD.